Chemics place 2nd; Walker, White shine at Valley meet for Dow

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Both Midland High cross country teams finished second at the final Saginaw Valley League Jamboree at Stratford Woods Park on Wednesday, with the Chemics placing three boys and two girls in the top 10 for each race.

Dow High's Stephen Walker ran a personal-best time of 15:59 to win the boys' event and Most Valuable Runner honors. The Chargers' Allison White took first place in the girls' race, winning MVR with a time of 19:46.

Both Walker and White captured first place in all three SVL Jamborees this year.

"Stephen ran as good as I've ever seen him," said Dow coach Jed Hopfensperger. "Allison looked good for us, too. We have a lot of kids that ran pretty good times. I was pleased overall. It was very good to see improvement."

Midland finished in second place in the boys' race with 47 points. Zach Romer finished second at 16:09, while Nathan Love was fourth (16:20) and Andrew Koehlinger seventh (16:43). Romer and Love both ran personal bests.

With that finish, the Chemics also wrapped up second place in the final SVL standings, behind Saginaw Heritage. The Hawks were first on Wednesday with 42 points.

"We have really improved over the course of the year," said Midland coach Marty Hollenbeck. "We just had a great day. Five of my top seven boys ran personal bests today."

Bay City Western's boys were third on the day with 60 points, and third in the SVL, while the Chargers were fourth with 88 points and in the overall SVL standings.

Mount Pleasant was fifth at 149 points, followed by Bay City Central at 159 and Flint Northern at 178.

Bay City Western won the girls' race with 43 points and also took home the SVL title, while the Chemics were second with 53 points and second in the league as well.

The Chemics' Megen Rapp finished fourth (20:18), while Courtney Rouse was fifth (20:21). Rapp's time was a personal record.

"The girls just ran really well. It is hard to ask anymore of the kids today," Hollenbeck said. "Megen's back in form after hurting her foot early in the year. Courtney's been solid for us all season long, just one tough kid all year for us."

Mount Pleasant was third overall (73 points) and in the Valley, followed in both standings by Saginaw Heritage (91), Dow (97), Flint Southwestern (173) and Bay City Central (208).

For Midland, Alaina Vouaux was 12th (21:08), Kelsey Schiel 14th (21:23), Ruth Leibfritz 18th (21:37) and Katie Cope 26th (21:55). Vouaux set a personal best by a 50-second margin, and Leibfritz also set a personal best, while Cope tied her personal high.